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Residents sue Tangerang administration over eviction
The residents are demanding that their homes be rebuilt and that they be compensated for expenses they have incurred since their eviction.
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Protesters calling themselves the Coalition against Batuceper Eviction rally in front of the Tangerang District Court on April 16. The residents, represented by the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), filed a lawsuit against the Tangerang administration for the eviction of 10 families from their houses in Batujaya subdistrict, Tangerang, Banten. (JP/A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil)
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esidents of Batujaya subdistrict, Batuceper district, Tangerang, in Banten province have filed a lawsuit against Tangerang city administration for evicting people from land that they claim to have lived on for decades.
Jenny Silvia Sirait of Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), who represented the evictees, said 10 families comprising 35 people had lived in four houses on 380 square meters of land since 1959. However, the Tangerang administration evicted them on Oct. 3 last year after claiming that they were living on state land.
“After they were evicted they were given no clarity about where they should live or relocate to,” Jenny said after filing the lawsuit at the Tangerang District Court on Tuesday.
She said the residents’ previous queries about the status of the land had been ignored.
Defendants in the lawsuit are the Tangerang administration, the Tangerang Education Agency, the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Land Agency (BPN).
Jenny said the residents had paid property tax (PBB) since 1994 despite having no land titles. She argued that according to Article 24 of a 1997 government regulation on land registration, ownership of land can be registered as long as evidence can be produced that proves control over the land. PBB receipts dating back decades can be considered as proof, she said.
The residents are demanding that their homes be rebuilt and that they be compensated for expenses they had incurred over the past six months because of their eviction.
